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There's a Southern Dipper in the sky. It's made of
six of the stars in Sagittarius, right where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way. It's the southern opening of the "river"
that runs through the sky. The northern end is near Orion's foot. The brothers/twins at the time of Creation are
those two places, one at the place for the deceased to enter the heavens (the north) and the other at the place for the return/birth
of new life (the south). Not coincidentally, where the ecliptic crosses the Milky Way at Sagittarius/Scorpio is where
our galaxy, the Milky Way, "gives birth" to new stars.
Sacred ground relates to the sky.
Where enough sites remain in their places we can "read" the sky in the ground. There aren't a lot of places where sightlines
among sites remain. They do remain in Waianae. That's one reason it's so important to keep them alive.
At Kaneikapualena complex there
are two springs. One's called Kiko'o, and the water comes out of the ground there. The other is called Mo'o, and
the water goes into the ground there. The celestial river on the ground. And it tells you that by its names -
Kiko'o - a unit of measurement (and measurement stars are in the northern part of the sky, like the Bear/Big Dipper) - and
Mo'o - descendants, succession. The two names, Kiko'o and Mo'o live on in the stories and on the land, but it's the
Kiko'o and Mo'o on the land that tell you the stories tell the secrets of the stars. And it's the stories that allow
you to "remember" the actual meanings of the places.
And all of that talks about the
two gods at Creation - Kane, the Creator, and his "brother" Kanaloa. What are they famous for? For drinking 'awa.
'Awa = soma = nectar of the gods = ambrosia, etc. How did they make the 'awa drink? Kane struck - "ka" - a stone
with his staff to make water come forth. Then they could masticate the 'awa root and add water and drink their soma.
And Kanaloa - it's said he's the
god of the sea. Well, sort of. He's the measurer whose star is Canopus (the steersman of the ship Argo in Greek
stories) and after whom we call the jars used in ancient Egyptian mummification "canopic" jars. In Hawaiian, Canopus
is called Ke Ali'i o Kona Lewa, the Chief of the Southern Heavens. And in the last "world age," which ended about 2100
years ago, Canopus was the South Pole star. It's still close to where the South Pole star would be if there were one
these days. And the kana part of Kanaloa means "tens," as in count by tens or measure by tens, and that means the measuring
of the 360 degree horizon. Each kana is 10 degrees. You know the left and right limits of each kana by the stars
whose lua - pits, homes - are there, meaning where they rise above the horizon at night.
And while there are 7-day weeks,
there are also 10-day weeks, in Hawaiian called 'anahulu. 'Ana - star, measure, survey, cave. Ten day weeks are
sailors' weeks. One degree of motion per day, measured at the horizon. The 7-day week belongs to the moon and
the sun. The moon gets 13 months, the sun 12. How so - 13 x 28 = 364 days. 12 x 30 = 360 days. 36 anahulu
= 360 days. None of them come out to a complete solar year, and the "error" increases with each year it's not compensated
for. Thus the leap year, first proposed in writing in the Canopus Decree in Egypt. Also the every four year Olympic
Games, and the many annual ceremonial periods in which there are/were uncounted days of varying numbers to fill out the gap,
in Hawaii the extra days of the Makahiki Festival.
Pardon. My point is, or,
rather one of my points, sacred sites have to remain. In them are the meanings of stories, the way to understand and
live in the relationships among earth, sky, and water; humankind, deity, and nature; body, mind, and spirit. And we
need these places, not as museums and artifacts, but as elders and teachers and providers of medicine/mana.
I was thinking during the last few days about some things
- "Stones are stars." "Numbers are things." "The stars tell us." and so on.
I thought about the Big Dipper
and how it tells time, a 24-hour clock, although of course we only see it for 7 to 11 hours, depending on the season,
because each hour equals 15 degrees of circumpolar movement of the Dipper. And how you can "measure" distance markers,
like longitude (despite what the scientists say about how longitude is impossible to determine without a mechanical clock).
Your hand - when you hold out your arm toward the horizon, or toward Hoku Pa'a [Polaris, the North Star], with
your hand wide open, it measures a distance of approximately 20 degrees. When you do it with your fist closed and thumb
tucked in, it measures 10 degrees.
10s - kana. 10 day week - anahulu. Kanaloa [god of the sea,
god of ocean voyagers] - tens in the distance, the horizon, the decans - the ten degree imaginary sections around the 360
degree horizon.
The numbers:
1 (e)kahi to cut longitudinally,
and this applies to both terrestrial and celestial longitude
2 lua the
"star pit," the point on the horizon from which a given star rises
3 kolu
4
ha
5 lima hand - measurement of 10 degrees, 20 degrees,
and each finger 2 to 3 degrees
6 ono
7 hiku
the seven, the stars of the Big Dipper by which you can tell time and by which you can measure distance
to other stars (because the Dipper is so close to Hoku Pa'a)
8 walu
the rubbing (to make fire), the figure-8 motion of the analemma (the annual path of the sun between the two ko'i - solstices)
9
iwa "east is a big bird," a constellation
10
umi kana, tens, anahulu
(kana and ana also both have
a meaning as "star," although, like ko'i for solstice, the dictionary doesn't say so.)
Anyway, I thought
I ought to tell someone before I forget what I remembered today.
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